Ryokan or luxury hotel
in Kyoto and Hakone

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn, and at the top end it is less a hotel than a carefully choreographed evening and morning. You arrive in mid-afternoon, remove your shoes at the entrance, and are shown to a room floored with tatami mats, often with a low table, a garden or mountain view and sometimes a private hot-spring bath on the terrace.

Staff serve green tea and a seasonal sweet, then leave you to change into a yukata, the cotton robe worn throughout the inn, including to the baths and dinner. Dinner is served at an agreed time, course by course. While you eat, your room is transformed: the table is moved and futon bedding is laid out on the tatami. Breakfast, usually Japanese, is equally considered.

The appeal is immersion, attentive service and food that expresses the season. The constraints are structure — fixed meal times, set check-in hours — and, for some, sleeping on futons. Many luxury ryokan now offer raised beds or Western-style rooms if you ask.

Choose a ryokan if you want the most distinctly Japanese experience, love food, and are happy to stay in for the evening. It is the best way to experience onsen culture and seasonal cuisine in one place, and it suits couples especially well.

Choose a five-star hotel if you want flexible dining, a gym, a bar, English-speaking concierge services as a matter of course, and a bed rather than a futon. In Kyoto, a hotel lets you start at a temple at dawn, eat at a counter restaurant at night and come back whenever you like — valuable in a city where the best experiences are spread across the day.

The middle ground is growing: several international hotels in Kyoto and Hakone incorporate tatami suites, in-room cypress baths and Japanese breakfast, while some ryokan have added lounges and spas. For most itineraries, the ideal is one or two nights in a ryokan and the rest in hotels. Longer ryokan stays are lovely, but the elaborate dinners every night can become a lot.

Onsen, or hot-spring baths, have clear customs, and following them is easy once you know them.

• Wash first. At the seated shower stations, scrub and rinse thoroughly before entering the bath. The bath is for soaking, not washing.
• Bathe nude. Swimsuits are not worn in traditional onsen. Baths are separated by gender, marked with curtains — usually red for women and blue for men, often with the characters for each.
• Keep the small towel out of the water. Fold it on your head or leave it at the side.
• Tie up long hair so it does not touch the water.
• Keep quiet and calm; no diving or swimming, and no photography.
• Hydrate and limit soaks if the water is very hot.

Tattoos are still restricted at many public baths. The simplest solution is a ryokan with an in-room or reservable private bath, which also suits couples, families and anyone shy about communal bathing.

Kaiseki is Japan's multi-course haute cuisine, built around the season and served in a set progression: a small appetizer, sashimi, a clear soup, grilled, simmered and steamed dishes, rice with pickles and miso, and a light dessert. Presentation matters as much as flavor, and each course arrives on carefully chosen ceramics or lacquerware.

Tips for enjoying it:

• Declare dietary needs when booking. Kitchens plan days in advance; vegetarian or allergy menus need notice.
• Keep to the dinner time you agreed; the courses are timed.
• Pair with sake — staff are happy to suggest a local brew.

Around the inn: remove shoes at the entrance and switch to slippers, but take slippers off before stepping on tatami. Use the separate toilet slippers only in the bathroom. Wear your yukata with the left side folded over the right — the reverse is used for the deceased. Tipping is not customary in Japan.

Hakone lies in the mountains southwest of Tokyo within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, and has been a hot-spring resort for centuries. It is easily reached from Tokyo by limited-express train from Shinjuku or by shinkansen to Odawara, followed by local trains, buses or a car.

The classic loop takes in the switchbacking Hakone Tozan mountain railway, the ropeway over the steaming volcanic vents of Owakudani, where eggs are boiled black in the sulfurous springs, and a boat across Lake Ashi, with its red torii gate standing in the water. The Hakone Open-Air Museum sets sculpture against the mountains.

Views of Mount Fuji are a bonus rather than a guarantee; they are clearest on cold, dry mornings in late autumn and winter. If a Fuji view matters, choose a ryokan around Lake Ashi or the higher ground and ask which rooms face the mountain. Two nights is ideal, giving you a full day to explore between long evening baths.

Kyoto was Japan's imperial capital for over a thousand years, and its temples, shrines and gardens draw visitors throughout the year. Where you stay shapes how you experience it.

• Higashiyama and Gion — the historic eastern district of lantern-lit lanes, teahouses and temples such as Kiyomizu-dera. Ideal for walking at dawn and dusk.
• Along the Kamo River — central, with views of the eastern hills and easy access to Pontocho's narrow dining alley.
• Central Kyoto — practical for transport, shopping and the Nishiki food market.
• Arashiyama — on the western edge, with the bamboo grove, river views and a slower, more rural pace.

The secret to Kyoto is timing. Arrive at Fushimi Inari's torii-lined paths, the Philosopher's Path or Arashiyama early in the morning, before tour groups. Book private tea ceremonies, temple garden visits and kaiseki or counter dining in advance. Kyoto ryokan tend to be prized for cuisine and gardens rather than hot springs.

Hakone sits neatly between Tokyo and Kyoto on the Tokaido corridor, so a route of Tokyo, then Hakone, then Kyoto flows naturally, with no backtracking.

• Tokyo (3–4 nights): recover from jet lag in a city hotel, explore neighborhoods and dining.
• Hakone (1–2 nights): travel southwest for the ryokan and onsen experience.
• Kyoto (3–4 nights): continue by shinkansen from Odawara. Add a day trip to Nara or Osaka.

Practical tips: Japan's luggage-forwarding services let you send large suitcases ahead between hotels, so you can travel to Hakone with only an overnight bag — useful on Hakone's mountain trains and buses. Reserve shinkansen seats with luggage space in busy periods. A private car and driver for the Hakone leg adds comfort and lets you explore at your own pace.

• Cherry blossom (late March to early April): Kyoto's temples and riverbanks at their most celebrated, and the busiest time of year. Book ryokan and hotels many months ahead; exact bloom dates vary by year.
• Autumn leaves (mid-November to early December in Kyoto): maples turn crimson in temple gardens, with Hakone's higher slopes coloring a little earlier. Equally popular, with crisp, clear weather.
• Winter: cold, quieter and ideal for onsen. The best chance of clear views of Mount Fuji from Hakone.
• Early summer: the June rainy season brings lush moss gardens and hydrangeas, followed by hot, humid weather in July and August. Kyoto's Gion Matsuri festival takes place in July.

Avoid Golden Week, the cluster of national holidays from late April to early May, and the mid-August Obon period if you want fewer crowds. Spring and autumn deliver the best combination of weather and scenery.